Business leaders pitch private funding for new bridge

Chamber of Commerce meets with lawmakers

Northern Kentucky businesses say they want state lawmakers to consider legislation that would allow private funding options for a new Brent Spence Bridge.

The bridge linking downtown Cincinnati and Covington is considered functionally obsolete by federal standards, with traffic way over its capacity. A current timetable calls for completion of the $2.4 billion bridge project in 2022, but businesses are campaigning to get it done earlier.

The Kentucky Enquirer reports the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce met with state lawmakers Thursday to discuss legislative priorities in advance of the 2012 General Assembly and the proposal topped its list.

"This is not a problem that will fix itself," said Tom Voss, district manager of DHL Global Forwarding in Hebron and chairman of the chamber's transportation committee. "If we don't solve the problem now, things will only get worse. People's everyday lives will change. We will literally choke on our own congestion."

Many lawmakers said they would need assurances that tolls wouldn't be used as a funding source before they could support the proposal.

Chamber officials said tolls aren't inevitable with a public-private partnership, pointing to options such as a gas tax and vehicle registration fees. Lawmakers, however, expressed skepticism.

"The only way that a public-private partnership is viable is if there is a funding source for that public-private partnership, and in every situation that we've seen in Louisville and other areas that have advance public-private partnerships, there have been tolls associated with it," said State Rep. Joe Fischer, R-Fort Thomas. "I do not support any legislation that will lead to local citizens being burdened with the cost of building the bridge."

State Rep. Arnold Simpson, D-Covington, had similar views.

"I'm not a supporter of any mechanism that could result in tolls," Simpson said. "I think it's a Trojan horse. If it is a public-private partnership, it's going to be tolls, regardless of what the proponents state."

Simpson also said he thinks federal officials are mainly responsible for funding the bridge, and he doesn't think the project needs to be rushed.

"I have hopes that eventually Washington will return to its senses and recognize the freeways were intended to be free, with the exception of the gasoline tax we all pay when we fill up, and they will assume their responsibility of levying sufficient revenue so we can maintain not only this bridge but all of our highways throughout the country," Simpson said.

Chamber members, however, said the bridge needs to be replaced sooner rather than later.

"This bridge is all costing us a lot money, so the sooner we can get it addressed, the better it's going to be for all of us," said Brent Cooper, a past chamber president and owner of Covington-based information technology firm C-Forward.

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